VAGABOND -- "Monument Valley" (1957)

Opening shot of seagulls soaring through the sky, clouds behind; crashing waves on shoreline; footsteps on a wet sandy beach, then back to crashing waves; title “Vagabond” over footprint in wet sand, wave washes over and deposits seaweed; car driving down a desert road past camera; a Navajo woman working at a loom (dah iistłʼǫ́), toddler boy beside her, possibly hogan wall behind; same woman seated by open fire hit, patting fry bread dough into shape, while another fries in a cast-iron skillet, toddler and another child sitting beside; next to canyon wall, a photographer before his large-format camera on a tripod and a (native?) man on horseback; Monument Valley in the distance and a blonde white woman in white pants and cardigan over her shoulders, and man with short black hair in a short-sleeved shirt and pants in foreground, they turn and walk off-screen; Mitchell Butte with a small group people in foreground by a juniper tree; the valley with a person on horseback; narrator/host Bill Burrud flipping through the magazine Arizona Highway in an office or den with a bookshelf and painting of a ship on a wood-paneled wall behind; as he’s talking he then turns and addresses the camera and then walks over a map of Four Corners states and points to Flagstaff, AZ, and the Navajo Nation; camera zooms into map; from point of view of a moving car driving down a highway; a white highway sign that reads “Colton 21, Redlands 30, Indio 99”, landscape beyond; highway with cars passing the camera, California U.S. 70 and California U.S. 99 highway signs in foreground; Fremont Street in Las Vegas, the Boulder Club in the foreground; couple from previous shot standing alongside two camel statues and a robed figure, then the parking lot to the Sahara hotel sign “Edgar Bergen, Teresa Brewer and others on the marquee; car drives past into the parking lot; swimming pool, tall Sahara sign in the background, person jumps from the diving board in the foreground; a dealer’s hands shuffling cards on a blackjack table with “Sahara” on it, a roulette wheel spinning, the tiny windows of a slot machine showing three bars; (mainly) white men and women milling about in a crowded parking lot outside a hotel; celebrities/actors Robert Young, Ann Miller, Sonja Henie, Ginny Sims, and Joyce Johnson holding and then cutting a ribbon and smiling for the cameras at an opening; the group waving and turning to walk away; highway, through desert landscape towards Lake Meade, then the lake in the distance; Hoover Dam from above; a car pulling off highway into road past Painted Desert Inn sign, to the rim of the desert itself and parks, three people get out; two women, cardigans over the shoulders, one pointing out to the landscape, the man stands nearby; the Painted Desert; white highway sign with “Ganado Mission 40, Canyon de Chelly National Monument 90”, then same with the car driving past and into a gas station; a sign “Chambers” (AZ) on a wood-planked wall; dust cloud from a moving car moving down dirt road; landscape and sky from moving car; wooden sign “Canyon de Chelly National Monument 1 mile”; from above of the car driving past buildings in Chinle, AZ, and parks next to a building alongside which stands park superintendent John Aubuchon, the walk over and shake hands; the group talking, Aubuchon pointing; canyon and wooden sign that reads “White House Overlook 200 feet”; the three people walking along cliff; down from the canyon cliffs to another larger group walking on a trail below; cliff dwelling caves; rock formations and White House Ruin; various rock formations showing stratifications; head/shoulders shot to the two women looking out at the Canyon del Muerto in the distance; the women walking through Beautiful Valley, one pointing, then head/shoulders shot of her in profile talking; the two women looking out at the landscape; young people running (identified as children from YMCA and YWCA in Whittier, CA and Navajo) from behind, up and over a large hill towards them; a circle of their hands removing canteens and metal camping plates from pillow cases onto a tarp; an adult scooping food on the plates of the seated boys then of boys eating; hands pulling a basket of metal plates and cups from a pot of boiling water; a large ring of the children and adults holding hands, surrounding a smaller group running around/dancing in the middle, landscape and busses in the background; the dance over the top of two people holding hands in foreground; of the dancers; smiling Navajo girls looking off camera, then a blonde white girl (identified as “Michelle” from Whittier) doing same; back to dancers; a Navajo boy in a color-blocked hat smiling, then a white boy; Michelle, the two boys and holding hands and then clapping and braking into pairs, the Navajo and white boy playing a hand slap game; the Whittier YMCA bus pulling out onto a dirt road; a Greyhound bus driving down dirt driveway and stopping an an A-frame wooden building (a church), where a few people away; a man disembarking the bus to shake hands with an awaiting man (identified as Dr. Gray — possibly Reverend Joseph W. Gray? — of the Trinity Presbyterian Church Mission at Chinle, with his mostly off-camera wife and Mrs. Gray), a group of youth (identified as being from a church group from San Marino Community Church, CA) follow and do same; Dr. Gray smiling and talking; a young man chopping wood, and a group of youth raking the sand in a courtyard, a young man pulling a large piece of wood on a rope across the dirt; two men digging a whole, surrounded by logs on the ground and standing as fence posts; a man showing a young woman how to rake the dirt; three women sifting dirt through their hands (or throwing seeds?); others standing nearby with rakes and a wheelbarrow; top church pediment and cross; boy holding a Kachina doll; wood sign “Garcia’s Canyon de Chelly Trading Post, Navajo Rugs, Gas & Oil, Cold Pop, Ice Cream, Meats” then the three travelers from before admiring and helping to hold up a Navajo rug being help up by a Navajo woman and a man; the rug; the man holding up one corner talking to the young traveling white man; the Navajo woman; an open field with a small building and farm windmill; aerial shot of the travellers’ car driving down a dirt road;  small single-engine plane taking off on dirt runway; aerial shots from moving plane over Canyon de Chelly/Tséyiʼ (Spider Rock, Canyon del Muerto are pointed out), including a slight glimpse of pilot’s face (identified as Pete Belkin); aerial shots switch to Monument Valley (El Capitan/Agathia Peak/Aghaałą́), No Mans Mesa, and Navajo Mountain/Naatsisʼáán, Colorado and San Juan Rivers, are pointed out), other formations like natural arch and buttes singled out; canyon walls, two of the travelers and the pilot walk by the plane and away, then to a jeep arriving; Bill Burrud back in the office speaking in front of the map; travelers’ car in foreground driving into Monument Valley, buttes in background; a hogan and sun shelter, a woman standing nearby, buttes and big sky in background; two mules or horses pulling a man on a standing plow and a woman following behind;  a Navajo man driving a tractor plow across a dry field; from the car of El Capitan; the car pulling into driveway of Goulding Ranch rustic lodge and buildings where Mr. Harry Goulding waves to them, they park and get out to greet him; the man (older, white, wearing a cowboy hat) shaking their hands; a man (identified as photographer Josef Muench) standing atop a jeep adjusting a camera on a tripod, and placing film in to photograph the butte behind the lodge; him from below; rock face then to the group and other walking the ground of the Monument Valley Seventh-day Adventist Mission School; a white boy walking down a dirt path and Navajo children walking down another in the same direction alternating with a a woman smiling and greeting the children as they pass; the teacher and children hoisting an American flag up a pole, rock face and building behind; the group of students shading their eyes and looking up, and back to flag at top of pole; wood-paneled jeep and then a white woman (identified as Mrs. Gwen Walter, a nurse) seated with a Navajo woman, a standing by, a toddler girl and a baby whom she picks up, outside a hogan; Mrs. Walter cooing the baby and hands it to the smiling mother; Mrs. Walter walking to the jeep and talking into the CB radio; interior shot of a shortwave radio, then a man (identified as Mr. Marvin Walter) picking up the handset speak into it, then back to Mrs. Walter at the jeep; the Navajo woman seated on a rock/clay bench rocking her baby swaddled in its cradleboard; pulling back the blanket to expos the baby’s face; (mission doctor’s office) an older Navajo man’s face (identified as a medicine man), in plaid shirt and headband, then a doctor (probably Dr. Vincent Gardner) places a stethoscope inside the man’s t-shirt collar, Gardner listening; the his hands tying a rubber around the patient’s upper arm and brings a needle; the Gardner’s face in profile, concentrating and smiling; the Navajo woman patient’s face smiling; a nurse bandaging the medicine man’s left hand as he smiles and watches; the dentist placing a dental drill in the same man’s mouth and talking as he works; jeeps driving down a dirt road past a ranch-style sign that reads “Goulding’s Monument Valley Trading Post - Lodge - Tours”, buttes in background; Mitchell Butte with a small group people in foreground by a juniper tree; jeeps driving down a curvy dirt road, Mitten Butte in the background; another view of the Mitten in foreground, the Valley behind; the travelers in foreground looking at the East and West Mittens, then a similar shot with two people in foreground pointing and looking at Castle Butte; profile view of a man (identified as Jack Sleight?) driving the jeep, Valley landscape whizzing by through the driver’s side window; a Navajo woman and three Navajo children sitting around an open fire pit at the bottom of a small hill, the woman working some dough with her hands, then a hogan in front of which is photographer Josef Muench behind his camera and tripod; the group by the fire, the woman mixes ground cornmeal in a white bowl; the Muench behind his camera, then takes a photo; the woman patting dough into a flat disk; one of the boy’s faces; back to the woman placing the dough into the cast iron skillet of oil on the open fire over a grill; woman pulling the fried bread out of the pan as a toddler boy looks on beside her and then behind her as she begins to shape another piece of dough; two boys eating the bread; the same woman working at a loom; the yarn on the ground beside her; woman working as the toddler moves about next to her; her working; Three Sisters rock formation and Mitchell Butte; a sheep (dibé) and goat herd walking, and shepherd nearby, cliffs in background; sheep walking; a young Navajo man pretending to ride a goat; a shot from below of a sheep eating from a stack of bailed hay atop some rocks; the blonde woman traveler and the man holding and playing with two baby goats; a young Navajo woman (identified as the daughter of a chief) riding a horse and glancing at the camera, cliffs in background; she then rides past a natural rock arch that is identified as the Ernie Pyle Memorial Natural Bridge; shot through the arch of a man in the far distance;  back to the young woman riding; the three travelers walking toward The Totem Pole rock formation, then fade to the Navajo woman on horseback riding towards the same; photographer Josef Muench looking through his camera on a tripod, great expanse of landscape behind, and possibly two Navajo men alongside him in black hats and clothes; shot from their point of view from behind the camera of the young woman on horseback posing before the Totem Pole and surrounding rock formations; riding through the valley, buttes in the background; her from below on the horse, looking off in the distance; back to on the horse, valley buttes in the background; back to interior shot of  Bill Burrud talking in front of the map and bookshelves; end credits over various beach scenes: Vagabond with Bill Burrud — written by Ted Hilgenstuhler — production manager Leland W. Hansen — production coordinator Charles Martin — filmed on location by Milas Hinshaw, Leland W. Hansen, Buddy Noonan, Guy Adenis, Dick Swenson, Gene McCabe, Ronald Munns — studio sequences Ken Carlson, Jim Crabe — associate producers Reed Bingham, Milas Hinshaw — film editors Marvin Walowitz, Mindy Bagdon — music and effects Audio Effects — produced in Hollywood by Bill Burrud productions — and Official Films Inc. presentation.